The Imitation Game · written by Graham Moore · 2014

Churchill’s order places Turing in charge; Turing immediately fires Keith and Charles, angering the remaining team and Denniston.

Scene 36 of 130 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Last scene of act one

Plot Point I
Save the Cat: Break into Two
Hugh Alexander
Keith Furman
Peter Hilton
Alan Turing
Commander Denniston
Charles Richards
Stewart Menzies
John Cairncross

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 31 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 36

At Bletchley Park, Alan Turing must persuade a skeptical team to build a machine that can break Enigma before the war is lost, while concealing the self the law condemns.

Scenes 1–12
Turing is investigated as a guarded outsider in 1951, then enters Bletchley in 1939 looking for the puzzle he can solve.
Scenes 13–30
He sees the scale of Enigma, believes a machine can solve it, and grows isolated from colleagues who make little progress.
Just before
Scene 33
Intercut with his run, Turing fills sheets with designs for a large codebreaking machine.
Scene 34
Turing asks Denniston to fund his machine after Hugh rejects the requisition; Denniston insists on the chain of command, so Turing decides to appeal to Churchill.
Scene 35
At the main gate, Turing asks Menzies to carry his letter to Winston Churchill.
Scene 36
This scene

36INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - DENNISTON’S OFFICE - DAY

The team — Alan, Hugh, John, Peter, Keith, and Charles — are assembled in Commander Denniston’s office for a meeting. Stewart Menzies watches quietly from the corner, as is his way.

HUGH ALEXANDER

You must be joking. Churchill put

Alan in charge?!?!?!

KEITH FURMAN

— This is a terrible plan —

PETER HILTON

— No no no no no no —

ALAN TURING

— Really? I can give these men

orders now?

COMMANDER DENNISTON

Though I hate to say it... Yes.

ALAN TURING

Fantastic.

(to Keith and Charles)

Keith and Charles. You’re both

fired.

KEITH FURMAN

Excuse me?

CHARLES RICHARDS

What?

ALAN TURING

You’re mediocre linguists and

positively poor codebreakers.

HUGH ALEXANDER

Alan, you can’t just fire Keith and

Charles.

ALAN TURING

He just said I could.

COMMANDER DENNISTON

(furious)

I did no such thing.

STEWART MENZIES

But Churchill did.

Denniston looks at Menzies, stewing, but Menzies just shrugs back: “What would you have me do?”

CHARLES RICHARDS

(to Alan)

Go to hell.

Charles and Keith leave, pissed.

JOHN CAIRNCROSS

This is inhuman. Even for you.

ON DENNISTON: He looks at Alan with a withering, simmering glare.

ON ALAN: He doesn’t budge an inch, or feel the slightest need to explain himself.